Monday, June 28, 2010

When going on a holiday, there's usually two options of whether to plan your own itinerary or engage a travel agent to have everything arranged for you from flight tickets to accommodation. It is undeniable that tour agents are a big help especially for busy people who have no time to arrange their holiday and wish to just purchase a package where everything is included. Hence, there are many tour agents thriving despite the online purchasing of air tickets. It's still different as though buying air tickets is not much of hassle, choosing good accommodation and planning out places to visit during the trip needs a lot of planning.

Going on a tour is good in the sense that everything is planned out, and you don't have to think where to go, where to eat and so forth. All the schedules are planned out for you. Some downsides of these are that you won't get to spend much time on places that you may like to stay longer as you have to follow their schedule. Since many destinations are on the schedules, they have to keep to it and hence, you may find it a bit hectic and tiring.
Nevertheless, even if you have the time to plan, it is good to go on a planned tour if you are unfamiliar with the country. It reduces the risk of messing up by getting lost and it is also safer.

If you're planning to visit a country that you are familiar with, especially in terms of language, for example Australia, going on your own is not a bad idea too. It will not be so hectic and you can choose wherever you want to go during the trip. Moreover, in most developed countries, the public transportation like buses and trains are really efficient and not very expensive too. However, hotels of comparable quality to our country are really expensive as services in developed countries pay high wages too. However, service apartments are not bad and the pricing is quite reasonable. Most apartments also include a kitchen with all the basic utensils and all other basic facilities as well.

Choosing between engaging a tour agent or planning your own itinerary is purely individual's choice. Some people prefer to have everything arranged while some like to explore further and plan out their own trip :) The most important thing is to plan ahead of any trip and find out what to expect of the trip to avoid disappointment.